


Tetsu Kara, Gin Made

by murakistags



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Childhood Memories, Flashbacks, Gen, Japanese, Lithuanian, Symbolism, Young, so much symbolism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-01-06
Packaged: 2018-05-12 06:06:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5655208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/murakistags/pseuds/murakistags
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“The most stable elements appear in the middle of the periodic table, roughly between iron and silver.”</p><p>Hannibal had always been exceedingly scrupulous when it comes to choosing his words, in any and every language he knows how to speak. Chiyoh once helped him develop the very first taste of an Asian language on his tongue. With those precious moments came words which he had never forgotten, not even all these years later when Will became part of the equation.</p><p>A brief, pre-series childhood progression to present, exploring the early relationship between a young Chiyoh and a young Hannibal. One-shot. [Pre-Antipasto (03x01)].</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tetsu Kara, Gin Made

**Author's Note:**

> (Translations for both Japanese and Lithuanian are in the endnotes...though I'm certain much of it can be understood simply by matter of inference and context clues anyway. I don't know Lithuanian, so please excuse me if I butchered it horribly. If any of my readers know the language, feel free to correct any of my faults in a comment. I do know Japanese, however...translating some phrases from English to Japanese isn't so simple when you'd very much like to retain the exact original meaning. I've tried my very best. Enjoy ~ )

"Chiyoh. _Kaip pasakyti 'sidabras_?' 'Silver.' How do you say it in Japanese?"

 

"The metal, silver?"

 

"Yes."

 

" _Gin_."

 

"… _Gin_. And ' _geležis_?' How do you say 'iron?'"

 

" _Tetsu_."

 

" _Tetsu_. … _Labai ačiū_."

 

" _Un_. _Dōitashimashite_."

 

—•—•—•—

 

"Chiyoh. Will you write it for me? _Kakimasen ka_?"

 

"Yes."

 

Fingers as delicate as the silver nib of expensive fountain pen, the young woman takes the utensil in hand. Expression as formidable as the very word she effortlessly writes upon the page, Chiyoh's gaze is sharp in concentration, never mind the beady stare from the male by her side. His gaze so close to her always was very unsettling, but it was also an odd source of comfort. Like step-siblings, they'd become closer in the past few years. It was a bond strange and unusual, one rarely openly addressed but one in existence nonetheless.

 

Fingertips neat and clean curve around the barrel of the pen, the tip flowing a smooth black ink as dark as midnight, and on a perfectly beautiful contrast to the white paper. It is with a practiced ease that Chiyoh gives a brief but firm stroke at first, beginning the Chinese character of 'iron.' Hannibal watches with rapt interest, taking very clear note of each smooth stroke, the direction and length, the deft movement of pen against paper. It's like a calligraphy, so sweet and beautiful, the one very character telling a word and meaning, a brilliant system of communication unlike any other. 

 

When she is finished, " 鉄 " has been written in an impeccably neat manner across the page, large and lovely at every dark tip and corner. It takes only a moment or two to ingrain the image into his extensive memory, plastering it there with the angelic oval face of Chiyoh right beside it.

 

"' _Gin_ ' _mo_ , _onegai-shimasu_."

 

"… _Hai_."

 

At his polite request (in a Japanese speech which still seems uneven on his tongue very fresh to the language yet) for another character, this time for 'silver,' Chiyoh acquiesces without complaint. How often she will do that, she finds. She is strong, but he is stronger, and she can instinctively feel it. This time, however, she feels all warmth and no regret in indulgence.

 

Once more, on a new sheet of paper, the young woman writes from memory, a memory of a time in which she first learned the word in school. Silver. It'd always oddly been one of her favorite _kanji,_ Chinese character. The first part of the character is very similar to that of 'iron' as well, but the remainder feels strangely triumphant for simply a word on paper. The strokes move so fluidly from her fingertips and wrist, just perfectly in-tune with the steady flow of dark ink.

 

Soon, she has also written " 銀 " upon a sheet of paper, all the while being keenly observed by the young man who is about her same age.

 

Hannibal also looks upon the drawing, impressed and immediately moving to pick up the two sheets of black and white when the clack of pen being set down fills the air. The study room is small, and when he moves the sheets, the unique scent of fresh ink wafts through the air and into his extremely perceptive nostrils. The smell, he associates with this young woman. From the page of carefully-placed strokes of ink, to the youthful face of smooth and pink cheeks brushed by thick lashes, framed by a midnight straight hair, Hannibal commits it all to memory. He knows not yet why a moment so simple and mundane in the grander scheme of things so acutely affects him, but he doesn't question it. Perhaps there is more beneath the surface. It's as if that unsmiling face of hers is made of this very iron and silver, unable to be shattered. Chiyoh's dark eyes hold a certain amount of reverent respect as she looks up to the taller person, and as Hannibal looks down at her he is sporting an expression almost similar. Mutual respect.

 

—•—•—•—

 

"Some beasts should not be caged."

 

The words are a release, a catharsis, both a greeting and a dismissal all at once. The syllables fall with a purposeful weight from Chiyoh's tongue, and her sharp sights seek the reaction for which she yearns. That subtle shifting of Hannibal's brow, the mild twitch at the very corner of those lips, that entire handsome face held so much more stern than she's ever seen it in her life.

 

She's been successful in getting her point across. It shows on his expression, though she's sure that he thinks himself very impassive at that moment; Hannibal, she knows too well, was always very peculiar in self-preservation like that. The both of them standing there as childhood friends, are both so cripplingly wayward in the motions of love and care. They may feel it within them, but neither can find the strength or skill to pull it to the surface for any form of appreciation more than a hug. No words, just a warm embrace. They are both insufferable, they think of one another so accurately.

 

They are but a year apart in age, or less, and yet Hannibal is so much larger. He is tall and lean, bits of firm muscle building at his arms and torso. Chiyoh can feel it in the embrace. For a quick moment, she can hear his heartbeat against her ear, feel that strong grip of arms encircle her. And it steals her breath right from her lungs with a piercing fear that creeps down her entire spine. With a shiver as if sealed in ice, Chiyoh pulls back and offers naught more than a bow of her head, a simple Japanese tradition of respect. Hannibal releases her without fuss, and likewise pulls back to observe her lithe and graceful movements. No sooner does his gaze pull away from her body, does the young man speak soft words nearly lost to the sharp early-morning winds.

 

" _Shūki-hyō no chūkan ni, mottomo kenrōna yōso ga aru, tetsu kara gin made. …Anata wa onaji desu._ "

 

_You are the same._

 

—•—•—•—

 

" _Uchi ni kaerimasu ka? …Uchi ni kaeru koto ga dekimasu ka_?"

 

(Will you go home? _Can_ you go home?)

 

The words between them crackle, like a hot fire.

 

" _Anata ga dekiru ijō arimasen._ "

 

(Not any more than _you_ can.)

 

—•—•—•—

 

"The most stable elements appear in the middle of the periodic table, roughly between iron and silver. …Between iron and silver. I think that is appropriate for you."

 

The widening of Chiyoh's eyes is imperceptible, not even to the man who stands tall by her side in the settling winter frost, upon a porch not his own. In her hands, the rifle crafted of both iron and silver sits very firmly, as if it's suddenly too heavy to hold. It feels like a burden, a weight, and yet a release. She could turn on him now, and free herself from his grip. So many years have passed, and still she finds herself in Hannibal's monstrous wake, her every action only a product of his existence. It drives her mad and yet it lulls her to sleep every evening, knowing that she depends on this beast just as much as he depended upon her to protect him in these last few moments.

 

Between iron and silver is indeed the most stable, yet it is also a place of transition. A change, metamorphosis, but never a full and fresh rebirth. It is exactly what Hannibal intended for her all along, and is exactly the very fate Chiyoh had written for herself. To be so stable and strong for so long, is it not the time for her to rest her head?

 

—•—•—•—

 

" _Sayōnara_."

 

 _Goodbye_.

 

It is one word which she had never taught him, until now. In fact, she knows he cannot hear her from where she is tucked away behind the trees, but it feels as though time has reversed and they are young again, blissful and lively in their quests for life and knowledge alongside one another. It is a term of farewell, one which is so severe and terse that it is most often saved only for final goodbyes. As the saying goes, one must never say 'goodbye' to another, but instead hope to meet them again, be it in this life or the next. But the single Japanese word is ripped from Chiyoh's lungs before she can stop it, and she can see it gather in a frosty mist warming the chilly air with her breath. It dissipates as fast as she inhales again, as swiftly as she ducks away into the brush.

 

Handcuffs painfully tight around his wrists, his knees digging into the soil and messing his expensive dress slacks, Hannibal can only see a world in patches of iron and silver for that moment. Perhaps, he thinks, some beasts truly are meant to be caged after all. How else would they themselves remain stable and found in the world?

 

To Hannibal's right, a pair of blue eyes shows a startling gasp of both betrayal and comfort, the opposing emotions linked and exuding in heavy waves from the expression of the special agent standing upon his porch in the dapple of setting sun.

 

In that man, Hannibal can see himself removed so far from the sturdiness of iron and silver, hands outstretched and longing for it nonetheless. Polished metal is his reflection and stability, but Will Graham's gaze as blue as cobalt is his becoming.

 

Cobalt sits right there, on the periodic table, between iron and silver.

**Author's Note:**

> Translations:
> 
> (Lithuanian)
> 
> 1\. Kaip pasakyti 'sidabras?' - How do you say 'silver?'
> 
> 2\. Geležis. - Iron.
> 
> 3\. Labai ačiū. - Thank you very much.
> 
> (Japanese)
> 
> 4\. Un. Dōitashimashite. (うん。どういたしまして。) - Mm. You're welcome.
> 
> 5\. Kakimasen ka? (書きませんか。) - Won't you write it?
> 
> 6\. 'Gin' mo, onegai-shimasu. ('銀'も、お願いします。) - 'Silver' also, please.
> 
> 7\. Hai. (はい。) - Yes/Okay.
> 
> 8\. Kanji. (漢字。) - Chinese character.
> 
> 9\. Shūki-hyō no chūkan ni, mottomo kenrōna yōso ga aru, tetsu kara gin made. …Anata wa onaji desu. (周期表の中間に、最も堅牢な要素がある、鉄から銀まで。あなたは同じです。) - The most stable elements are in the middle of the periodic table, from iron to silver. You are the same.
> 
> If you liked it, don't forget to leave kudos and comments. They inspire me and make me smile.
> 
> Please consider [buying me a coffee for a fic](https://ko-fi.com/murakistags)!


End file.
